Censorship and the written word

Over the centuries, many books have been banned, censored or
challenged for not conforming to the political, religious or moral
codes of their day.

From state-sponsored censorship to pressure from religious
extremists, or simply society's belief in certain types of
unacceptable behaviour, the stifling of intellectual expression has
gone on for as long as information has been shared between
people.

Politics

Direct censorship is imposed by the enactment of laws, some
strong enough to deter publishing in the first place. The ideal of
freedom of expression is strongly linked to human rights and
democracy. Global events in the recent years have shown that human
desire for intellectual freedom exists as passionately as
governments' desire to restrict it.

Developments such as Twitter and Wikileaks show that the fight
to preserve freedom of speech is a long war with battles taking
many forms.

Exploring the issues

This resource looks at some of the issues surrounding the
censorship or outright ban of seven items. The accompanying
questions serve as starting points for further discussion or
research into that particular publication and the issues
surrounding its suppression.

Society

Anything that challenges society's norms will often find loud
objections, sometimes leading to outlawing particular behaviours or
activities.

Yet even where such behaviour is legal, there will always be
people who will object to something they do not agree with, whether
on religious grounds or because of personal beliefs and
prejudices.

Of course, social mores differ from place to place. Threats to a
society's self-image or the fear of social disorder can be a
powerful drive for the suppression of information, but opposition
and constructive debate can change society's values and standards
over time.

Ironically, successful challenges to injustices such as racism,
sexism and so on, what is considered to be political correctness,
has itself now become an effective censorship tool. It encourages
people to self-censor in order to maintain social conformity or
else risk ostracism.